Visiting Tragedy
The Different Approaches to Shared Experience, Tragedy, and Memorialization
The way in which tragedy is depicted has a direct impact on the way in which audiences interpret events. Ongoing studies are documenting the process of media forms to document and memorialize such events (Sparling, 2023). When looking at global tragedies, those affecting populations from around the world, the power to direct the narrative rests in the curator, be it an individual, organization, social group, or government. This creates potential for what Adorno deemed personal and social exploitation (2003), alongside exposed risks to trauma. As such, careful considerations must be considered in order to effectively and ethically impart knowledge of such tragedies to audiences. Furthermore, it can be argued that the conditions and expectations placed upon visitors and those engaging with ‘Tragedy Sites’, furthers the desired emotional response from curators. However, how can a ‘Tragedy Site’ impose a set emotive response if the experiences pertaining to each event is unique to the individual? Additionally, how does such a consideration to impart set narratives around tragedy deter from the authenticity and accuracy behind a tragedy? As part of my ongoing research into live installation as a depiction of tragedy, it is important to explore these questions in context.
Where tragedies are turned into spaces for learning, reflection, and remembrance, they become memorials, a physical space whereby we are face-to-face with the events, whether at the direct site, or in a dedicated space. Furthermore, these spaces become shared experiences, where the individual brings their experience into a communal space, engaging collectively within a wider social experience. This shares similarities to the educational field, and the work of Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development. As a part of my research, during 2023 I made site visits to locations depicting the Holocaust, the September 11 2001 Terror Attacks in New York City, the 7th July London Bombings, and the Covid-19 Pandemic in the United Kingdom. At these sites, I explored the considerations and procedures implemented to inform visitors, memorialize tragedy, and create a shared space for reflection. From this research, similarities and differences presented themselves, informing future study.
The Poster
The following poster is a recount of my experiences engaging with the following memorials, Tragedy Sites, and Museums:
Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oświęcim, Poland
The National 9/11 Memorial and Museum, New York City, USA
Seeing Auschwitz (Exhibition), London, UK
The Holocaust Galleries at the Imperial War Museum
The National COVID-19 Memorial Wall, London, UK
The National 7/7 Memorial, London, UK
These experiences were documented, compared, and contrasted in order to inform future research and compositional works.
References:
Adorno, T. (2003) The jargon of authenticity. Abingdon: Routledge Classics.
Sparling, H. (2023) Disaster songs as intangible memorials in Atlantic Canada. New York: Routledge.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge: Harvard UP.
